Immigration Reform: The Case Of Mr. Jose Vargas

In Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, she allows us to enter the everyday lives of ten undocumented Mexican workers all living in the Chicago area. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz refers to Chuy, Alejandro, Leonardo, Luis, Manuel, Omar, Rene, Roberto, Lalo, and Albert the ten undocumented Mexicans as the “Lions”. This book shares the Lions many stories from, their daily struggle of living as an undocumented immigrant in America, to some of them telling their stories about crossing the border and the effects of living in a different country than their family, and many other struggles and experiences they have encountered. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s book delves into

Getting through high school, getting a license, getting into college, and getting a job are all extremely intimidating parts of every young adult’s life, but it is hard to imagine doing all these things illegally with the fear that at any moment everything could come crashing down. In Jose Antonio Vargas’s article, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”, Vargas explains his take on the struggles of being a gay, illegal immigrant trying to achieve the American Dream. Throughout the article, Vargas tells his story and really makes the reader feel sympathy for his fight and his strength. He does a very good job keeping the readers drawn in as well as appealing to pathos and ethos.

Correspondingly, Vargas has not only immersed himself into his new culture, but learned to love it as well. He “built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country” (Vargas). Even though he is living the American dream, he is also “living a different kind of reality… in fear of being found out (Vargas).” Because of his status, it is hard to live a “normal” life. Even with all he has done to “earn” citizenship, he is still unrecognized as

Jose Vargas tells the story of his life; from coming to America, finding out that he is residing here illegally, learning how to live with that, and finally to sharing with everyone that he is an undocumented immigrant. Jose has a difficult task in front of him, though. He must win his audience over to his side so that he can further his agenda of developing an easier path for undocumented immigrants to receive citizenship. There are many ways he could go about this, trying to skirt the topic of his illegal activities, but Jose is an intelligent man and knows how to influence his audience. He uses the story of his life to connect with others, and in connecting with them wins them over, even if only indeterminably so. In My Life as an

In the article, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonia Vargas, to spark the topic of immigration and undocumented immigrants in the United States. In the article Jose show the choice he made in his life which were good. One of the good choice he made was instead of being one of undocumented who hides and just do labor work, Jose instead graduated from college and became a journalist. He worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, the Philadelphia Daily News, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Atlantic and Rolling Stone. Not once did he give up his dream of becoming a legal resident or on his dream which he did accomplish which was to become a journalist.

The “American dream”, a national ethos of the United States, is sought after by many struggling immigrants who go through much risk in order to make a better living in the U.S. A long debated issue over illegal immigration into the U.S revolves around Mexican/Latino immigrants. With Honduras having little to no medical care and harsh living environments, many of its citizens seek to find jobs to support their families. Enrique’s Journey, bye Sonia Nazario sheds a new light on immigration in the U.S with the account of one particular Honduran boy who is trying to immigrate to the U.S. From the view of privileged individuals, these immigrants may be seen as a problem, with a simple solution; do not let them into the U.S. However, this problem has a much more complex lining.

Vargas handled it through journalism. The article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” is about Vargas’s life story as an unwanted American. In the article he uses ethos, pathos, and logos to share his story with the readers. He uses data’s, location, names of palaces, and other events that were happening at the time. For example, “Dream Act” and “Obama administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two years”, which was before 2011. He published this article with the New York Times in 2011, but it wasn’t the first time Vargas had published something. He tells the readers that he is “paying state and federal taxes” and on “April 2008, [he] was part of…[the] team that won a Pulitzer Prize” to show that he is credible in telling his struggling life story as an undocumented immigrant.

The article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” was written by Jose Antonio Vargas. In it, Vargas tells of the time when his mother brought him to the Phillippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he was twelve. His mother told him that she wanted to give him a better life so he boarded onto a plane with a man he had never met before and was told that he was his uncle. He arrived in Mountain View, California and moved in with his grandparents Lolo and Lola. Vargas says that he grew to love his new home and when he entered sixth grade that’s when he found his passion for language. He tells of his struggle of making a distinction between “formal English and

In the United States, many families are currently being affected by the Dream Act’s failure to pass. The Dream Act would have given many undocumented children the ability to have a pathway to citizenship. The Dream Act believed in the importance of social support within the family by supporting family unification. However, due to its failure to pass, millions of undocumented children are now at risk of being deported and having their families divided. Although the U.S. government created a new policy known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), it is not providing immigrants with the same opportunity. DACA instead give undocumented people the opportunity to not be deported for a maximum of three years, but will never become a pathway to permanent citizenship. The Dream Act and DACA ultimately affects the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the immigrants who reside within the U.S.

Immigration, the word that seems to keep coming up on the news every day. Many people around the United States think of different things whenever this word comes to mind. Throughout the years, the immigration system has tremendously changed, and so have some people’s views on immigration. People no longer come from crowded boats, but some still get treated as they do. People no longer have to take an education test or medical test, yet if one lacks in those areas they get treated similarly to how they were treated during the Progressive Era. America has changed, but it hasn’t really changed in ways. America may have replaced some laws, but it’s new laws have a similar impact as the older ones did. Although some of America’s immigration policies have changed over the years, immigration to America still remains a broken system. Immigration laws still prevent people from getting jobs, discrimination towards immigrants is still around, and many immigrants are not given good jobs or living conditions.

When it comes to immigration reform, many people have their own opinion on how the United States government should implement immigration policies. We can all agree something needs to be done about it, but no one can seem to agree on what exactly we should do. The Federal DREAM Act has gained astonishing support in the past ten years. Members from both the Democratic and Republican parties have helped draft versions of the proposed bill which has helped gained bipartisan support. Yes, “You can say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one” (Lennon, 1971). The DREAM Act will not excuse an

Illegal immigration it is a controversial issue for many years. Immigrants do not have the same benefits as Americans citizens. According to the article Illegal Immigration by Kathleen Brown states “In the past decade, the number of illegal immigrants has double, to 2.1 million, equivalent to the population of Arkansas” (Brown). In fact, illegal immigrants immigrate to America, but their main intention is to get better opportunities in life. The American dream is all over the world, which is the principal reason why people come to United States to make their American dream true. However, the epiphany is that Americans protect their country by implementing more laws and enforcing their borders secure.

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, shares his life-long journey as an undocumented immigrant in his text, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” As the title suggests, Vargas attempts to convey to his audience, who likely never has and never will experience anything similar to what he has, what it is like to live as an immigrant in the United States of America. Skillfully, Vargas details the perfect number of personal stories to reach the emotional side of his audience, which is anyone who is not an immigrant. Through the use of his personal accounts Vargas is able to effectively communicate that immigrants are humans too while simultaneously proving his credibility, as he has experience and a vast amount of knowledge

He is not only an undocumented immigrant but also a gay. He declared his status and requested for the DREAM Act (the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), which would help the people, who did not have real documents, to be a legal citizenship available to them. Unfortunately, Vargas does not qualify for the program because of his age ---- now he is over 30. Although Vargas does not have a chance to apply the program, he fights for the young undocumented immigrants. The Dream Act is eligible for young people who arrived to the U.S. as minors, graduated from high school in the U.S., and lived in the U.S. at least 5 years. Lately, the Department of Homeland Security announced that young people who were in the country illegally would stop deportation and got work permits under the program. However, The DREAM Act legislation has not passed yet. The U.S. Congress should pass the DREAM Act for the DREAMers who eligible for the program so that they can finish their higher education, contribute to the societies, and make more economic growth in the future for our country.

Immigration reform has long been a topic of debate in the United states, the lives of many individuals depend on how the government chooses to handle immigration issues. The lives of Mexicans and Latinos are greatly impacted by the change in these immigration policies, when it comes to immigration Mexicans and Latinos have always been the group specifically referenced when referring to immigrants coming into the country. That alone shows the mindset that this country and its leaders have towards the issue and the people impacted by it. Whether families are being separated, the cost of citizenship, or just the treatment of immigrants, Mexicans and Latinos are constantly negatively affected especially in the current climate of the United States government.